“No problem.” She stood and extended both hands to him and then pulled him gently to his feet.
He almost passed out from the pain. When he’d recovered enough to speak, he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. He was operating on pure adrenaline powered by pain meds. “I’m really sorry this evening turned into such a mess. Other than the car nearly rolling off the bluffs and the banged-up ribs, I had a great time.”
“You forgot the splinters in your face,” she said, smiling.
“How could I forget that?”
“You’re going to remember when the numbness wears off.”
“Can hardly wait for that. Anyway, maybe we can have a do-over some night soon?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks for sticking with me through the clinic and driving me home.”
“It was no problem for me. The car might say otherwise.”
“The car has lived to see another day.”
She shocked the shit out of him when she placed a hand on his chest. “Despite the injuries, it was pretty cool how you managed to stop the car from rolling off the cliff. There was a certain Superman-ish element to it.”
“Is that right?”
“Uh-huh.” She shocked him even more when she went up on tiptoes to kiss him.
The soft peck on the lips was over before it began, but Gigi Gibson had kissed him. He could die happy now.
But it would be much more interesting to stick around to see if she might do it again sometime soon.
Chapter 5
Jared woke from a deep sleep to the sound of a baby crying. At first, he thought he was dreaming, because why would a baby be crying in their house? They couldn’t have babies. He reached for Lizzie, but her side of the bed was cold.
And then he remembered the mother and baby Lizzie had brought home from the clinic. This was their second night in residence, and Lizzie was up with the baby again.
Son of a bitch.
It was so rare for him to be unhappy with Lizzie, he had no idea how to handle feeling that way. He loved her madly, and under normal circumstances, he supported her in everything she did. But this… This was too much. They hadn’t begun to deal with the heartbreak of learning that another round of IVF had failed, and she’d brought a newborn into their home?
He was angry with her and self-aware enough to know he needed to get that under control before he said or did something that couldn’t be undone.
For a long time, he lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling as he listened to the baby cry. When he could no longer take not knowing what was going on, he got out of bed, put on gym shorts and went to find his wife.
He found her in the family room, walking the crying baby from one end to the other of the big room.
The baby cried so hard that Jared wondered how she could breathe.
“Where’s Jessie?” Jared asked, looking around for the child’s mother.
“She’s so exhausted after being up with her all night that I told her I’d take a turn.”
They had to speak loudly to be heard over the baby’s cries.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know. I’ve tried everything. I fed her, changed her, burped her, but nothing I do calms her.”
Jared didn’t intend to reach for the baby, but he wanted her to stop crying. He snuggled her into his arms, and she immediately went quiet, looking up at him with big gray eyes.
“How’d you do that?” Lizzie asked, sounding amazed.
“I have no idea.” As he gazed down at the adorable little face, he was filled with an overwhelming feeling that this was not something he ought to be doing. He shouldn’t be holding this baby who didn’t belong to them. And Lizzie shouldn’t be holding her either. Every instinct he had told him this wouldn’t end well for them. “We can’t do this, Lizzie. We just can’t continue to help this way.”
“I don’t know what else to do. I can’t let her go to the Beachcomber employee housing with a newborn, and she won’t take our money. I mentioned the Chesterfield apartment to her, but she said she can’t live that far from work.”
“Tomorrow, she has to go somewhere else. I don’t care where they go. Anywhere but here.”
“I’ll try to figure something out for them.”
“Jessie needs to figure something out for them. This isn’t our problem.”
“I know it isn’t, but how do I turn them out when they have nowhere to go?”
“Jessie must have family or friends somewhere that she can turn to for help. We’ll give her money to get whatever she needs.”
“She doesn’t want charity.”
“That’s all well and good, but if she doesn’t have any other options, she has to accept help.”
“I’ll talk to her in the morning.”
“You know I try to support you in everything that’s important to you.”
“Yes, you do.”
“This is too much for me. After everything that’s happened… I can’t do this, Lizzie. And you shouldn’t do it either.”
Her pretty eyes swam with tears, and her chin quivered.
Those tears wrecked him, but he couldn’t back down when he saw them headed for catastrophe. The baby was adorable. If she stayed for even one more day, they would get attached to her, and their hearts would be broken all over again when she left.
“Please tell me you understand how I feel,” he said softly, not wanting to disturb the baby, who was on her way to sleep.
“I do. I’m sorry. I never should’ve brought them home.”
“You did what you thought was right, but tomorrow, we’re relocating them.”
“Okay.”
“Can we take her to her mother now that she’s asleep?”
“Yes, I set her up with a makeshift bassinet.”
“Lead the way.”
They tiptoed into the guest room where Jessie was sleeping and got the baby settled. Jared realized Lizzie had used the baby carriage they’d bought for the baby they’d hoped to have as the bassinet.
He took Lizzie by the hand and walked out of the room, leaving the door open in case Jessie needed anything. They had to get through this one night, and then they’d figure out another plan for the mother and baby.
Back in their room, Lizzie got in bed on her side and turned away from Jared.
That, too, was unusual.
“Come here, honey.”
She didn’t move.
That’s when he realized she was crying.
Damn it.
“Lizzie.”
“It’s not fair.”
“What isn’t?”
“That she can have a baby she doesn’t even want, and we can’t have one we desperately want.”
“How do you know she doesn’t want her?”
“I can just tell. Jessie is very detached. Like she wishes she was anywhere but with the baby.”
Great. This just got better and better. “I know you want to help her, but she has to figure this out for herself, Lizzie.”
“I know, and that’s what’s so unfair. I’d give anything to have that baby, and she’d give anything not to have her.”